This invention relates to means for encapsulating a filler with fresh dough. Various products in the form of dough envelopes containing a filler are an important segment of the processed food industry. Ravioli, won ton, pierogies and kreplach are popular examples of pasta-type products while apple dumplings are illustrative of baked goods. Hereinafter, the term ravioli is intended and used as a generic expression for all food products in which a filler is encapsulated in dough.
Many of these products are made by hand or with devices that require stepwise operation. Ravioli have perhaps received the greatest attention and efforts to develop machinery for their rapid production. Currently, a sheet of fresh pasta receives spaced gobs of filler such as ricotta or ground meat and another sheet of fresh pasta is laid thereover. The two pasta sheets are pressed together around each gob of filler so that each filler gob is sealed between the pasta sheets. Then a cutter is used to cut around each dough-encapsulated filler gob to yield individual ravioli.
In my copending patent application Ser. No. 356,221, filed May 24, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,402 an apparatus for the continuous production of ravioli is disclosed and claimed. That apparatus is capable of producing only ravioli with perimeters that are rectangular because the apparatus has two sets of cutters disposed at right angles to each other. However, there is a growing demand by consumers for ravioli with circular, elliptical and other non-rectangular perimeters.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an apparatus for the rapid and high-volume production of dough capsules containing a filler.
Another important object is to provide such an apparatus that can produce ravioli with perimeters that are circular, oval or other unusual shape such as hexagonal.
Still another important object is to provide means for delivering carefully metered and uniformly spaced gobs of filler on a moving sheet of dough.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows.